Sunday, February 22, 2009

Timeout

There obviously hasn't been much bloggage on our part lately. This has largely been a function of:

-- Gretchen and Mädchen being in Wisconsin;

-- My moving out of the house while they were away because the house was being painted;

-- The painters forgetting to do the rewiring, which resulted in our being without internet access for several days upon our return to the (newly painted!) house; and

-- Our spending way more time on Facebook than on the blog.

To quote the late Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, "so it goes."

We'll get back around to it, but in the meantime here's something I posted on Facebook. There has been a "bucket list" going around where you're supposed to check things off a list that you've done. But a lot of things on the list are actually kind of lame, so a friend posted her own list and encouraged others to do the same. This was what I came up with:

* * * * *

I know realistically that a lot of these things are probably never going to happen, and I won't feel badly if I never do them (with the possible exception of #1 and #2). But if money and time really were no object, this is what I wouldn't mind doing/achieving/seeing:

1. Be the best possible Dad to Anneliese. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what that means, and I'll probably never really know, but I don't ever want to stop trying to figure out how to raise her right.

2. Honor our wedding vows as long as Gretchen and I both shall live (although I don't actually remember our wedding vows...maybe I'd better read them again!).

3. Go on an African safari.

4. Learn how to fly-fish.

5. Take a long driving tour of national parks in the Western U.S. with the family. I've actually done this in bits and pieces over the years, but would love to do it again and see things through their eyes.

6. Either live in a slightly bigger house or actually have a second bathroom in our current house someday!

7. Learn to scuba dive, or at least take a resort course even if I don't get certified.

8. Live overseas again.

9. Become fluent in another language.

10. Live along the Northern or Central California coast.

11. Learn to play the cello.

12. Write a book.

13. Go to South America (the only continent other than Antarctica--which I have no desire to visit--that I haven't been to). Machu Picchu would be ideal, but so would Brazil, Argentina, etc.

14. Go to North Dakota and Alaska (the only two states I've never been to).

15. Go to Vietnam.

16. Go to India, but don't get sick there.

17. Vacation in either Tahiti or the Maldives.

18. Go north of the Arctic Circle and see the midnight sun (preferably in Norway).

19. Do the things I should have done when we lived in Switzerland and still kick myself for not doing:-- Visit Scotland-- Visit Sweden, Finland, and Tallinn, Estonia-- Visit the Engadin in Switzerland-- Visit Dubrovnik, Croatia-- Take Gretchen to Istanbul and Cairo, which I saw but she didn't and I would love to see again-- See either a Champions League match or an English or Spanish rivalry match (e.g., Barcelona-Real Madrid or Liverpool-Manchester United...that's soccer, by the way)-- Eat at a Michelin 3-star restaurant

20. Go to Uluru (Ayers Rock), Australia [although a friend later pointed out that he thought Uluru was nothing special and that I should consider adding Angkor Wat instead, which is indeed someplace I'd love to go]